Project Living Hope has a partnership with Corban University. We have taken several students with us on athletic trips, and every year for the past eight years, Guesly Dessieux, our president and Sarah Comstock, our Vice President, have helped lead a medical trip for Corban. This year we decided to bring the team to work with another local partner organization, Project Help Haiti, so that they could run a clinic in the town of Camp Marie, where PLH serves. Below you will find a reflection from Kate Vetter, one of the Corban students who participated on the trip, and the impact she saw that PLH is having in our community.

By Kate Vetter

As I stepped off the airplane hot, sticky air surrounded me, clinging to my skin and filling my lungs. I took off the flannel that had kept me warm on the much cooler plane and turned to a teammate, “It feels like we just walked into a giant sauna!” A broad smile spread across his face, “Kate, do you realize we’re in the airport? It’s air conditioned.”

My eyes grew wide with surprise. Just a bit later I discovered my teammate was right—it was much, much hotter outside! I had expected Haiti to be hot, yes, but having never visited the Caribbean I had no frame of reference for what humid heat would feel like.

This May I went to Haiti with Corban University’s medical missions trip. Our team was comprised of a dozen students and about the same number of healthcare professionals including Dr. Guesly Dessieux. Our purpose? Running clinics in the communities surrounding Camp Marie, providing healthcare and medication for the people.

We prepared extensively for the trip, learning about healthcare issues in Haiti and approaches for nonprofit work in developing countries. Despite this, I had many interactions resembling the exchange I’d had with my teammate about the heat. Having never been in Haiti before, I had no idea what to expect, and nearly every facet of the country surprised me in some way.

On one of our first days we went on a hike up a mountain. An avid hiker from Oregon, I was anticipating beautiful trees, and hoping for a good view. Both my expectations and hopes were far exceeded by our journey which snaked up the mountainside.

Sections of plantain trees, and looming breadfruit trees provided areas of shade from the hot sun, but when the trees were sparse, the views were stunning which more than made up for the heat. What surprised me about this hike was the consistent spread of homes which continued with our upward climb. We did not leave the villages behind at the foot of the mountain, rather, our so-called hike was really a walk on the roads many use for a regular commute.

Clinic days, similarly, brought many surprises. My heart was warmed by the multi-generational families who came in together, clearly invested in caring for one another. My favorite part of clinic, however, and one of the most pleasant surprises of the trip were the many employees from Project Living Hope who accompanied us. They did not come because they had been asked to accompany us, rather, they chose to. Their presence was an enormous help practically as they monitored the flow of patients, but also spoke volumes about their dedication to embodying servant leadership as a means of improving their own community and Haiti.

What surprised me most though, more than the heat, mountainside villages, and clinic days, was how obvious the relative magnitude of my opportunities, wealth, and privilege became. Because I was born in a country with public education through high school, generally plentiful jobs, and allowance of international travel, I have had opportunities galore.

Grappling with my circumstances given this trip to Haiti has transformed my view of the world in many ways. While dwelling on the magnitude of my own privilege, feeling guilty for my plenty or overwhelmed by how small I am is an easy trap to fall into, I have instead chosen to focus on what can be done.

How will I use all that I have? My gifts and my talents, my money and my privilege—how will I use these things in a way that is honoring to the Lord, and communicates the love of God to those I meet?

While it is a small step, I am choosing to support Project Living Hope as a part of this newfound effort to use what I have. I consider myself lucky to have seen the firsthand impact they are having in a Haitian community, and I am thrilled to help support their efforts in any way I can.

In 2012, our founder, Guesly Dessieux, started a trip for pre-medical students from Corban University to work with a team of physicians and nurses to provide medical care to underserved people in Haiti. The following year, I was asked to join the leadership team for the Corban trip. In case you were not aware, Guesly is a physician in Stayton, OR and I am a professor in the Science department at Corban University. The purpose of this trip is to serve the medical needs of the Haitian people while also providing pre-med students a glimpse of the unique nature of healthcare in the developing world. This trip makes a significant impact on Corban University students; they come back with a renewed drive to serve others through medicine. In fact, because of this trip, Corban University now offers a scholarship in Guesly’s name – the Dessieux Scholarship – for students seeking to use a career in healthcare to serve others through missions.

This May, Guesly and I helped lead a team of 15 students and 15 medical professionals to serve on the 7th annual Corban University medical mission trip. We partnered with a new organization, Nehemiah Vision Ministries, to provide outreach in three villages in rural Haiti as well as with our Oregonian friend Aslan Noakes and her organization, Empower Haiti Together, to help develop a hypertension management program in two other communities. We saw over 400 patients and developed relationships with many other like-minded people working to empower the Haitian people. While Project Living Hope does not focus on medical ministry, we are committed to using our talents to empower the Haitian people and we seek to partner with other organizations that are working to do the same. We are excited about the partnerships with these two organizations and look forward to collaborating more with them in the future.

While we were in country, we also got to work with our Project Living Hope in-country employees and take care of important logistics. We met with our architect, Andrew Ripp from MSAADA Architects, to sign contracts and to discuss our vision for our project as well as our ministry. Then, later in the week, Andy came out and toured the property. We are excited to be working with Andy and MSAADA. Their mission is to “provide professional architectural and engineering services in the planning, design and implementation of building projects for organizations dedicated to serving others.” Specifically, they seek to partner with organizations in developing countries who serve the Worldwide Church. In addition, we met with another nearby organization, Extollo International, that works to educate Haitians in the construction industry, “equipping them to build/rebuild their communities, reduce unemployment, stimulate the local economy and improve their quality of life.” We will be partnering with Extollo to train construction workers from Camp Marie and contracting with them to help begin building on Phase One. The contracts are signed, so be on the lookout for updates about building in the next few months!

Another important meeting to note was that we also got to see the mayor, Marie Lourdes. We are so impressed with the way she is advocating for Project Living Hope and the community of Camp Marie. As we met, she showed us a letter she had written to the local government officials asking for their support as we develop in this new community. She wrote about the opportunities that our partnership with Camp Marie will develop and how their support will help further this relationship and create jobs for the community. We ask you to be in prayer that this letter will be well received and that God will continue to guide us to future partnerships that will help us continue His Kingdom Work.